What Were Tom Petty’s 5 Biggest US Hits?

Tom Petty earned a reputation as one of the most authentic rock and rollers of his era. He never dumbed his stuff down so that he could hit the pop charts. It’s just that the public at large eventually gravitated to his brilliance.

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Petty amassed a solid roster of Top 40 hits over the course of his career. These five songs of his did the best on the American pop charts.

5. “You Don’t Know How It Feels” – No. 13 in 1994

Petty worked with producer Rick Rubin on the Wildflowers album, a stellar LP that brought his songwriting to the fore on a wide variety of material. When you listen to the album as a whole, there are probably five to ten other songs that might jump out at you more than “You Don’t Know How It Feels”. Yet it’s irresistible in its own laid-back way, especially when you factor in Petty’s shrugging vocal delivery. Even when radio censored the song because of the word “joint,” it somehow worked in Petty’s favor.

4. “Don’t Come Around Here More” – No. 13 in 1985

Petty originally intended the Southern Accents album to be a concept record about the South. But he also wanted to try recording techniques different from the straightforward rock that the Heartbreakers generally favored. Hence, the album turned out to be a bit disjointed. But “Don’t Come Around Here No More” proved that Petty could get with the program when it came to the latest pop trends and maybe even set them himself. Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart helped him concoct this whopper of a single.

3. “I Won’t Back Down” – No. 12 in 1989

Initially, Petty hadn’t planned to make a solo record. But the lack of enthusiasm of the other Heartbreakers (except for Mike Campbell) for the work he was doing with producer Jeff Lynne sealed the deal for him on Full Moon Fever. He chose a wonderful first single in “I Won’t Back Down” to introduce the project. The wobbly slide guitar obviously belonged to his Wilbury buddy George Harrison. Meanwhile, Petty’s decision to deadpan the defiant lyrics instead of sneering at them somehow made the message more powerful.

2. “Don’t Do Me Like That” – No. 10 in 1979

Jimmy Iovine made a huge impact on the recording of the Heartbreakers’ 1979 album Damn The Torpedoes. First, he demanded that the sonics be perfect, which drove the group (especially drummer Stan Lynch) to the breaking point. Iovine also insisted Petty play him all his material, even stuff from years before. That’s how Iovine discovered “Don’t Do Me Like That”. Petty took the title from a phrase that his father often said. Iovine clearly recognized a great hook when he heard one.

1. “Free Fallin’” – No. 7 in 1989

Tom Petty’s biggest single provides a good example of why collaborating with a co-writer can pay huge dividends. When Petty started formulating “Free Fallin’”, he was coming up with lyrical lines that he thought would make Jeff Lynne laugh. Instead, Lynne heard the seeds of a great song and insisted that Petty continue this path. The finished product is a classic Lynne production of a song that reveals more about the wayward ways of the narrator than anything about the “good girl” he’s describing.

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